October 13th, 2012 by Laura Fonda

As part of the Seattle Center’s Next 50 Civic Action Month, local residents both young and old submitted short films about Seattle neighborhoods for a competition being held this Wednesday, October 17 at the SIFF Uptown. The awards ceremony is free and begins at 7pm.

“A Story Runs Through It: Neighborhood Film Celebration and Awards” features short films (3 minutes or less) that tell stories about Seattle and its neighborhoods from the viewpoint of residents. Filmmakers could showcase any part of Seattle, regardless of which neighborhood they call home.There are 3 categories: Youth Filmmaker, Adult Filmmaker, and additional submissions not up for awards.

All film submissions to “A Story Runs Through It” are available in their entirety online. Awards will be presented for Youth Filmmaker, Adult Filmmaker, Civic Relevance, and Special Recognition.

Courtesy: “Love, Seattle” Megan Leonard, Peter Edlund & Rachel Klein

There’s a wide range of films and neighborhoods highlighted in the submissions – if you’re looking for Queen Anne specific films, check out Mike Clarke’s “Next 50 Project” and for a showcase of Seattle images, including some Queen Anne icons, check out “Love, Seattle”. And, root for your favorite on Wednesday night!

Tickets for the Opening Night Gala can be bought here, which include screening of “The First Grader” and Gala party to follow. “The First Grader” is a UK film shot in Kenya by director Justin Chadwick, who previously directed “The Other Boleyn Girl,” about an 84-year-old Kenyan villager trying to get an education. General admission is $50 and includes two complementary drink tickets, while premium admission is $100 and includes open bar at the post-film reception and preferred entry into the Gala screening.

The Centerpiece Gala will be held June 4 and will feature the French film “Service Entrance,” a comedy about a Parisian stockbroker directed by Philippe Le Guay.

The festival concludes June 12 with the Closing Night Gala, featuring the UK documentary “Life in a Day,” a mosaic of thousands of individuals from around the globe in a single day by “The Last King of Scotland” director Kevin Macdonald.

This year the festival will feature 441 films, including 257 features and 184 short films, 96 of which will be premiered at SIFF, representing 74 countries, a record for SIFF.

Special to SIFF this year, the new “Pathway” system will be released aimed at assisting moviegoers in finding the kind of films they’re looking to experience. The SIFF website lists the ten Pathways as:

Love Me, Do! - Romance and love in all its forms, pleasures, and idiosyncrasies.

Make Me Laugh – Films that make you chuckle and tickle your funny bone.

Thrill Me – Suspense, thrills, and action. Films with a faster pace that might also surprise you when you least expect it.

To the Extreme – Explore the outer limits with films that go beyond the edge.

Face the Music – Films that intersect the world of music on all fronts: from biopics and concert films, to musicals and live events.

Screenings for the films will take place at various venues throughout Seattle, Renton, Everett and Kirkland.

SIFF, the largest and most highly-attended film festival in the United States, will be opening the SIFF Film Center in the Alki Room at Seattle Center this coming fall, “fulfilling its long-standing vision of creating a permanent home where SIFF’s successful film, education, and community outreach programs can thrive,” the organization says on its website.

Find out more about what’s screening at the film festival this year here.

February 1st, 2011 by Sean Keeley

“The Details” stars Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Ray Liotta. Maguire plays Dr. Jeff Lang, who along with his wife Nealy (Banks), lives a regular middle-class life in Seattle. What begins as a series of innocuous events and bad decisions by Lang ultimately becomes something a bit darker in this black comedy.

June 11th, 2010 by Thea

The film follows a Canadian town that was able to successfully ban the use of pesticides, inciting a province-wide movement:

Dr. Irwin’s persuasive arguments and data to back her findings eventually led the town of Hudson to enact a by-law that banned the use of all chemical pesticides and herbicides. The most mighty chemical companies in North America put their full legal weight on the tiny town and eventually the case made it to the Supreme Court.

The town’s right to protect its citizens was upheld, and — like a row of dominos — other municipalities followed suit. The movement spread so far and wide that the entire province of Quebec enacted a ban and Home Depot stopped putting the dangerous pesticide products on their shelves.

Paul Tukey, one of the nation’s leading experts on organic lawn care has been following this story for years. After becoming seriously ill with acute pesticide sensitivity from applying chemical lawn products in his own lawn care business, he became an outspoken advocate for alternatives to chemical lawn care. He travels across the country lecturing on the subject and has written the nation’s leading book on organic lawn care titled, The Organic Lawn Care Manual.

This documentary follows his journey that leads to the doorstep of Hudson, Quebec. It’s an inspiring story of overcoming great odds and demonstrates the power of people coming together to effect great change in our society.

January 29th, 2010 by Thea

The entries have been divided into two session of ten short films each, to be screened tomorrow, Saturday, January 30 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets are $9 for one session or $15 for both. Check out the entries and get synopses of the films here.

January 22nd, 2010 by Thea

SIFF Cinema will be showing a free screening of “Garbage Dreams,” a 2008 documentary that follows three teenage boys from Egypt born into the garbage business, tomorrow, January 23 at 12 p.m. at Seattle Center, 321 Mercer Street.

Set in the world’s largest garbage village, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, the film delves into the lives of the Zaballeen (Arabic for garbage people), who gather trash and recycle 80 percent of the everything they collect. When a multi-national corporation threatens their livelihood, three friends are faced with difficult choices knowing their decisions will “impact the survival of their community.”

For more information see ITVS Community Cinema, an organization that runs free monthly documentary movie screenings and post-showing activities to further explore the these films, in cities nationwide.

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Caring for someone with Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)? Need support and information? Alzheimer’s Association FTD caregiver support groups provide a place for caregivers to learn and gain support from others caring for a person with FTD.[...]